Pan-Baltic Investor Survey: Individual Investment Objectives Focused on Securing Future

26.03.2008 TLN

In Estonia and Latvia individuals stated that their primary goal is to secure their future; in Lithuania, people wish to earn supplementary income in addition to their wages. Nearly 40% of respondents who are not currently engaged in investing would begin once their incomes increased; one-third of the respondents also regard the economic development indicators of the country as important when making an investment decision.

Last year, the primary investment vehicles in the Baltic’s were pension funds, accounting for one-half of the investments of all respondents, followed by shares and fund units. Lithuania topped the list for the highest level of investment. In Latvia and Lithuania, investments into pension funds are primarily made by middle-aged residents (45-54 years old); pension investments by Estonians are high in all age groups.

When making investments, Estonians and Latvians value long-term financial security (42.5% in Estonia, 41.8% in Latvia), which is followed by the earning of additional income (42.0% in Estonia, 36.6% in Latvia). In Lithuania, investors are primarily concerned with earning supplementary income (37.6%) and saving for the future (29.9%).

Almost 40% of the respondents in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regard the improvement of the economic status of the population and higher income as important when starting to invest. One-third of survey respondents said they would start investing if the economic development indicators for the country were to improve.

This year, a small proportion of the respondents would start investing (5.9% in Estonia, 3.6% in Lithuania, and 3.4% in Latvia); an average of 16% of people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are still hesitant. In the case of supplementing their securities portfolio, those respondents who have previously invested in securities were more optimistic.

Latvians and Lithuanians prefer obtaining their information for making investments from the mass media. Estonians, however, prefer obtaining the corresponding information from financial institutions (banks / investment banks) and their respective specialists (21.7% of Estonians, 12.3% of Latvians, and 12.7% of Lithuanians).

The NASDAQ OMX web page for the Baltic Market is used considerably more as a source of information by Estonians (7.1% Estonians, 2.3% Latvians and 1.2% Lithuanians), 10% of whom are also aware of the Tallinn Stock Exchange investor education programme “Invest Mentor”.

In the course of the survey conducted in December 2007, 1.000 permanent residents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia aged 15-74, were included in the survey, following the stratified random principle. The survey was conducted by the research companies “Saar Poll”, “Latvian Facts” and “Vilmorus”, in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, respectively.